Although the International Space Station (ISS) is not yet retiredPrivate space companies are already racing to take his place in low Earth orbit. A new California-based company has also appointed SpaceX as its launch partner. aims to be the first commercial space station to reach orbit.
Vast, in his announcement, Haven-1announced that it plans to launch the U.S. into low Earth orbit before August 2025 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
After the station’s deployment, the company reached the space station with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, wants to send a crew of four to spend 30 days in orbit. SpaceX Senior Vice President of Commercial Affairs Tom Ochineroin the statement “A commercial rocket launching a commercial spacecraft with commercial astronauts to a commercial space station is the future of low Earth orbit, and with Vast we are taking another step towards making that future a reality.” said.
While Vast is a relatively new name in the space industry, it specializes in space settlement. The company became a crypto billionaire last year. Founded by Jed McCaleb and moved to Long Beach, California earlier this year He became the last member of the group called “Space Beach”.
The first module Vast will send into space will be just 10 meters long and 4 meters wide, barely enough to fit four people. Haven-1 will initially be a crewed space station in its own right and will eventually merge with a larger space station currently in development.
Vast aims to build a 100-meter station, which consists of many modules and creates its own artificial gravity with the rotation movement. While the first module is small enough to fit inside a Falcon 9, larger components to be launched in the future will need to use SpaceX’s massive rocket Starship.
Of course, Vast isn’t the only company aiming to be the first commercial space station in orbit. Axiom Space also plans to launch the first module for its space station in 2025 and launch the second module in 2026. In short, the race to build the first commercial space station can easily be said to have begun.
As this race continues rapidly, the ISS’s termination of its mission in 2031 and It is planned to be dropped into the Pacific Ocean.